Tuesday, 9 January 2018

Bowie Week II: Tuesday

With glam rock in full swing, Bowie became a household name. Shortly after 'Ziggy Stardust' had cemented his name into the consciousness of rock 'n' roll, he trotted out a series of hits that just outdid his contemporaries each time. John, I'm Only Dancing was the first new one, appearing in the autumn of 1972. It was no radical departure, but the subject matter has often been discussed. The most popular consensus is that it's about a gay man reassuring his boyfriend that he doesn't have serious intentions towards a female companion, that he is merely "dancing" with her. Confusingly, two versions were released as a single in the UK with the same catalogue number, one with and one without a sax part.Manchester-based Californian Jesca Hoop is an interesting character herself, and her latest album, last year's 'Memories Are Now', was her best to date. There's no sax in her version which is taken from a 2015 tribute album called 'A Salute To The Thin White Duke'.

'Aladdin Sane' was not Bowie's best album but it's best moments rate extremely highly indeed. Drive-In Saturday in particular is a stand-out. It's no secret that Morrissey was a long-time Bowie fan. The feeling was clearly mutual as Dave himself once covered I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday on his 1993 comeback record 'Black Tie White Noise'. However, a couple of years later, while on tour together, the pair fell out and Moz, typically, remained rather bitter about it for, well, forever really. "I bear more grudges than lonely High Court judges," as he once crooned. And yet he performed a version of Drive-In Saturday during his US tour in 2007, subsequently releasing a recording of it as a b-side the following year.

Glam's last hurrah, for Bowie at least, came in the form of 1974's 'Diamond Dogs' which was altogether darker and more arty than anything he'd done before. While some strung the whole glam thing out for far more than it was worth, Dave moved on. But not before he released what remains one of his defining songs of the period, the stomping Rebel Rebel.

What I find interesting is how Bowie's influence has been as much upon female artists as male ones. That's probably illustrated quite well by this series so far, actually. One of many Bowie tribute albums was 'Spiders From Venus' which featured exclusively female acts. Canadian twins Tegan And Sara name Bowie as one of their influences and contributed their version of Rebel Rebel to this album. They are the only act on the thing I've ever heard of, and if I'm being honest, I've heard better. They do play it pretty straight.

This is the life of...

What's it all about?

A load of stuff with some nonsense thrown in. Some of it autobiographical, some of it informative, some of it amusing and some of it that is none of the above. But all of it is about music and my obsession with it.

(Links to music files will die in time. Files are intended only to illustrate my posts in sound form. Buy what you can from reputable music retailers. Support your local indie stores whenever possible. Go to gigs as often as you can afford. Love music. Embrace it. Keep it alive.)